The Discernment of Things, Meanings, and Values

The cosmic-mind endowed personality possesses innate recognition-realization of physical reality, intellectual reality, and spiritual reality. The physical senses of life discover the existence of things (energy), mind consciousness interprets the reality of meanings (mind), and spiritual experience chooses the true values of life (spirit). The personal experience of these three elements in universal reality generates the development of the facts of reason (science), the ideas of wisdom (philosophy), and the insights of faith (religion).

Physical Reality

Intellectual Reality

Spiritual Realty

Things

Discovery

Facts

Reason

Science

Logic

Law

Power

Attractive

Harmony

Education

BEAUTY

Meanings

Interpretation

Ideas

Belief

Philosophy

Relationship

Morality

Justice

Coherent

Wisdom

Ennoblement

TRUTH

Values

Choice

Insights

Faith

Religion

Ideals

Divinity

Sovereignty

Stabilizing

Justice

Salvation

GOODNESS

Mortal consciousness proceeds from the fact, to the meaning, and then to the value. Creator consciousness proceeds from the thought-value, through the word-meaning to the fact of action. [118:5.3 (1299:3)]

The cosmic-minded creature personality has the ability to recognize the multiple realities of energy, mind, and spirit. This cosmic recognition within the human consciousness grounds and validates the personal unification of human experience. The three reality domains of things, meanings, and values are innate to all manifestations of cosmic mind. They are the a priori assumptions on which all personal experiences are based. These three cosmic intuitions are innate self-revelatory realizations that give objective validity (reality) to the human experience in and with things, meanings, and values.

Material Things

Intellectual Meanings

Spiritual Values

The reality domain of the physical senses

Logical uniformity of physical causation

Differentiation of factual from non-factual

Reflective conclusions

Universal Beauty

The Fact of God

The reality domain of morals in the philosophic realm

The arena of reason

The recognition of relative right and wrong and the obligation of moral conduct

Eternal Truth

The Law of God

The spiritual domain of the reality of religious experience

The personal realization of divine fellowship in association with the loving service of humanity

The recognition of spirit values

The faith-grasp assurance of eternal survival

The joy and liberty of ascent as sons of God

Divine goodness

The Love of God

The fact, the law, and the love of God are all discernible to will creatures as inalienable endowments of human consciousness. These three reality responses of cosmic recognition are intuitively realizable and are subject to the personality-unification of the human consciousness. The cosmic-mind-endowed, Adjuster-indwelt, personal creature is thereby equipped to discern the fact, the law, and the love of God.

The mind perspective will not yield the existential unity of the source of reality, the First Source and Center, but it can and sometime will portray to man the experiential synthesis of energy, mind, and spirit in and as the Supreme Being. But mind can never succeed in this unification of the diversity of reality unless such mind is firmly aware of material things, intellectual meanings, and spiritual values; only in the harmony of the triunity of functional reality is there unity, and only in unity is there the personality satisfaction of the realization of cosmic constancy and consistency. [102:2.5 (1120:2)]

We are told that mind is the functional unifier of diverse realities (e.g., energy, mind, and spirit), and that the individualized mind-experience of this "triunity of functional reality" creates a "personality satisfaction of the realization of cosmic constancy and consistency." [102:2:5 (1120:2)] Furthermore, the accumulation of these personal syntheses of energy realities, mind realities, and spirit realities are collected and correlated in the actualizing experience of the person of the Supreme Being himself.

The mortal consciousness perceives the universal realities of energy, mind, and spirit "from the mind level, from the perspective of its psychological registry." [102:2:5 (1120:2)] As these triune aspects of experiential reality become functionally active in the personal environment of a mortal being, the harmonizing nature of that person's encircuited mind endowment will innately act to unify this diverse reality of things, meanings, and values. The mortal consciousness depends on the mechanism and technique of mind for correlating the outer material human experiences with the inner spiritual response. This mind activity of the experiencing personality conditions the quality of personal expression and the extent of self-realization.

The Discovery of Truth, Beauty and Goodness

Truth, beauty, and goodness are man's intellectual approach to the universe of mind, matter, and spirit. Mortal personality unifies the human experience of mind, matter, and spirit realities. Truth is the intellectual foundation of religion. Beauty is representative of the meaningful rhythms of all human experience. Goodness drives experiential perfection-hunger. Although truth and beauty may be conceptualized by non-personal mind, goodness is incomprehensible when separated from personality. Goodness is always associated with the discrimination of truth and beauty. The hunger and thirst for goodness by a truth-discerning, beauty-loving soul assures eternal salvation by leading the mortal creature towards the "singleness of purpose to do the Father's will, to find God and to become like him." [132:3:4 (1459:4)]

Truth is coherent, beauty attractive, goodness stabilizing. And when these values of that which is real are co-ordinated in personality experience, the result is a high order of love conditioned by wisdom and qualified by loyalty. [2:7.12 (43:5)]

The meanings of eternal truth are appealing to both the intellectual and spiritual natures of mortal man. The revelation of the infinite values of divine goodness to the finite mind is perceived and elevated to the very threshold of the spiritual level of human comprehension. The intellectual appeal of universal beauty leads towards a unified and synchronous comprehension of the harmonious relations and rhythms of the cosmic creation. It is through the discovery of truth that man attains the appreciation for beauty, and it is through the exercise of spiritual love that man ascends into goodness.

The comprehension of truth, beauty and goodness embrace the revelation of Deity to the realms of time and space. God is the source and destiny of all that is good and beautiful and true. The Creator, as the God of universal love, reveals himself to the fullness of the creature's spiritual capacity to comprehend the qualities of divine truth, beauty, and goodness. To finite man, this intellectual approach to universe realities promotes the supreme ideal of the full revelation of divinity reality. These personal experiences become power-unified in supremacy and personified as the God of fatherly love. Love, then, as the sum and total experience of universal beauty, eternal truth, and divine goodness becomes the focus of mankind's perception of God as his Spirit Father. In the world of religious experience, we find the goodness of God. In the intellectual world, we discover eternal truth. In the physical universe, we discern divine beauty. These divine realities become the supreme qualities of the eternal as reflected in time and space. These are the comprehensible elements of Deity—living truth (God in mind), universal beauty (God in matter), and divine goodness (God in spirit). They are revealed to mind-conscious beings in time and space, in the Deity Realm of Supremacy.

The evolving creature is challenged with the discovery and integration of the experiential realities of these reality systems of truth, beauty, and goodness. The finite realm of the mortal mind begins to comprehend that there is an intellectual coherence in his discoveries of living truth, and this influences the promotion of personal philosophical beliefs. This mortal mind begins to grasp that there is an emotional attractiveness in his experience with harmonious beauty in the material creations, and this helps in the development of an appealing cosmology. This mortal mind also realizes that there is a stability of spiritual values characterizing divine goodness, and this generates a reverence for all things divine.

Within the seven-adjutant mind of an evolving creature, these discoveries of truth, beauty, and goodness initiate human religious experience that finds registry and integration within the mortal soul. The mortal soul experiences increased revelation, enhanced appreciation, and augmented perfection-hunger. This is a process of internalization of new meanings and values, and it drives the completion of the seven circles of pre-morontia attainment. The tutelage of the seven adjutant mind-spirits, under the direction of the Spirit of Wisdom, works in preparation for the superimposition of morontia soul-mind upon the foundation of adjutant mind.

The discernment of supreme beauty is the discovery and integration of reality; the discernment of the divine goodness in the eternal truth, that is ultimate beauty. Even the charm of human art consists in the harmony of its unity. [2:7.8 (43:1)]

The love of the beautiful, the pursuit of truth, and the worship of divine goodness lead the mortal being to spiritual insight. Love, as the highest of these values, leads us to God. The love-dominated personality unifies the powers of the soul resulting in health, mental efficiency, and happiness. The powers of the soul arise from the conceptual unification of truth, beauty, and goodness. The morontia soul becomes permeated by truth, beauty, and goodness as the value-realization of God-consciousness. Mankind unifies the concepts of truth, beauty, and goodness by the increasing spirituality of his experience as he ascends towards Paradise realities. Only a God-knowing personality can realize the unity of truth, beauty and goodness through spiritual experience.

The result is that the mortal creature experiences ever-progressive levels of unified self-realization co-ordinated in personality experience, and these new expressions of personality become the personal identity response of a transformed being. Personal philosophy has transformed into the cosmic sanity of faith. The appreciation for awe-inspiring cosmology has stimulated healthy prayer. The reverence for divine goodness has revealed the joyful happiness in the outpouring of worship.

Physical Harmony: health

Balanced Mind: sanity

Spirit Growth: happiness and lasting joy

Health, sanity, and happiness are integrations of truth, beauty, and goodness as they are blended in human experience. Such levels of efficient living come about through the unification of energy systems, idea systems, and spirit systems. [2:7.11 (43:4)]

All of these personal transformations of identity and expression find their collective impact within the actualizing realm of the evolving Supreme Being, where the finite maximums of ideational experience find correlation within the experience of the Supreme Being. Living truth translates into the supreme reality of mercy as conditioned with righteousness, wisdom, and justice. Universal beauty becomes conducive towards developing a life as motivated for tranquil service and ministry. Divine goodness becomes supremely expressed in the serene satisfaction of sharing divine love.

The Mortal mind is increasingly challenged to integrate personal concepts of eternal truth, universe beauty, and divine goodness. These new and progressive visions of reality, all dominated by divine love, lead ever onward towards spiritual insight and soul enhancement. The achievement of godliness is "the experiential blending in the evolutionary experience of eternal truth, universal beauty, and divine goodness." [44:7:4 (507:5)] Living in the Father's will is predicated on truth, sensitive to beauty, and dominated by goodness. These qualities of mortal experience are perfectly and absolutely unified in God, and they are subject to ever-progressive levels of unified self-realization. Although the finite mind cannot experience the absolute nature of truth, beauty, and goodness, the human personality can acquire a unique and personal experience of their divine attributes. The reality of this experience becomes a unique possession of the human soul.

These divine qualities are perfectly and absolutely unified in God. And every God-knowing man or angel possesses the potential of unlimited self-expression on ever-progressive levels of unified self-realization by the technique of the never-ending achievement of Godlikeness - the experiential blending in the evolutionary experience of eternal truth, universal beauty, and divine goodness. [44:7.4 (507:5)]

Science, Religion, Philosophy, and Revelation

Science is representative of mankind's attempt to study the cosmic realities of his physical environment. Science uses reason as a tool for recognizing the conclusions of consciousness with regard to the experience in and with the physical world of energy and matter. The relevant facts of science are clarified and correlated, becoming meaning "through encircuitment in the thought streams of mind." [102:2:5 (1120:2)] Science is dedicated to the investigation of physical things and energies. Religion, on the other hand, deals with the realities of a spiritual nature. Science encounters great difficulties when it presumes to make pronouncements on things that are not associated with the physical creation. The analytical tools of science cannot penetrate the worlds of either mind (the proper domain of philosophy) or spirit (the proper domain of religion). However, this inability of science to effectively delve into the worlds of mind and spirit does not in any way negate the unique value it brings to providing insights into the workings of the physical creation.

The certainties of science proceed entirely from the intellect; the certitudes of religion spring from the very foundations of the entire personality. Science appeals to the understanding of the mind; religion appeals to the loyalty and devotion of the body, mind, and spirit, even to the whole personality. [102:1.4 (1119:3)]

Science should do for man materially what religion does for him spiritually: extend the horizon of life and enlarge his personality. True science can have no lasting quarrel with true religion. The "scientific method" is merely an intellectual yardstick wherewith to measure material adventures and physical achievements. But being material and wholly intellectual, it is utterly useless in the evaluation of spiritual realities and religious experiences. [195:7.2 (2078:6)]

Philosophy designates the love of wisdom. It is representative of mankind's enlightened mind-effort to discover the intellectual meanings of facts and values through his efforts to organize and correlate the findings of science and the personal experiences of religion into a reasonable and unified attitude towards the cosmos. Philosophy seeks for the first principles of being and experience, and it delves into the nature, function, and value of religion. In its most basic function, philosophy attempts to arrive at a coordinated comprehension of reality. In its highest function, philosophy strives for the spiritual insights and unified values of eternal meanings.

The acid test for any religious philosophy consists in whether or not it distinguishes between the realities of the material and the spiritual worlds while at the same moment recognizing their unification in intellectual striving and in social serving. A sound religious philosophy does not confound the things of God with the things of Caesar. Neither does it recognize the aesthetic cult of pure wonder as a substitute for religion. [101:7.5 (1114:3)]

Religion is representative of mankind's personal experience with the cosmos of spirit values. Religion exercises faith for recognizing the validity of spirit-consciousness. Religion puts its faith in the goodness of God. The realm of religion encompasses the total of human life experience. The religious experience does not need to acquiesce to the scrutiny of science or philosophy in order to certify its value.

The realization of the recognition of spiritual values is an experience which is superideational. There is no word in any human language which can be employed to designate this "sense," "feeling," "intuition," or "experience" which we have elected to call God-consciousness. [103:1.6 (1130:5)]

Religion stands above science and philosophy, but its truths do not conflict with their doctrines. Spiritual love has the utmost of personal value when it is invested with truth, beauty, and goodness. The power of love drives man's perfection-hunger for truth beauty, and goodness.

In the physical universe we may see the divine beauty, in the intellectual world we may discern eternal truth, but the goodness of God is found only in the spiritual world of personal religious experience. In its true essence, religion is a faith-trust in the goodness of God. God could be great and absolute, somehow even intelligent and personal, in philosophy, but in religion God must also be moral; he must be good. [2:6.1 (40:5)]

True religion, if it is to remain dynamic and meaningful to the day-to-day lives of men and women, must not be crystallized into formalized and static dogma. True religion must be individually personalized for each unique child of the heavenly Father. Rather than acquiesce to an institutionalized religion of authority, we will fare much better if we choose to share in the personal religion of our Master, Jesus of Nazareth. He provides the perfect example of religious living in dedication to doing the will of the Father. We should feel inspired and be encouraged for finding our own personal spiritual life with the Original Father. This approach is mandated by Jesus' saving gospel of the kingdom, the religion of Jesus of Nazareth.

True religion is a meaningful way of living dynamically face to face with the commonplace realities of everyday life. But if religion is to stimulate individual development of character and augment integration of personality, it must not be standardized. If it is to stimulate evaluation of experience and serve as a value-lure, it must not be stereotyped. If religion is to promote supreme loyalties, it must not be formalized. [99:4.3 (1089:7)]

Revelation is the potent technique for assisting the mortal efforts to unify his cosmic viewpoint by affirming the unified reality and relationships of matter and spirit via the mediation of mind. The truth of revelation is revealed in its usefulness in the human life experience. Revelation works to synthesize the insights of science and religion into a life-revealing cosmic philosophy. Revelation does not ever contravene the truths of science, religion, or philosophy. The process of revelation adds a new dimension of spiritual insight by affirming the divine unity of the fact of Deity, the idea of the absolute, and the spiritual personality of God. The Universal Father himself is a revelation of the universal fact of existence, the eternal idea of mind, and the infinite spirit of life.

Revelation is intended to spur on the spiritual progress of mankind. However, it is provided only in measured doses. Too large an infusion of revelation cannot be fully assimilated, and it may actually hinder the development of original and auto-revelatory insights within the mind of man.

Science - Deity as Fact

The universal fact of existential Deity

The domain of knowledge

The appreciation of universe beauty

God as First Cause and primal force

Religion - God as Loving, Spiritual Personality

The spiritual experience of a loving and personal God

The sphere of faith

The love-comprehension of divine goodness

God as loving Father and living spiritual experience

Philosophy - The Idea of the Absolute

The idea of the eternal Absolute

The realm of wisdom

The discovery of living truth

God as idea and self-existent

God as idea and self-existent ubity

Revelation - The Validation of Faith

The technique for achieving comprehension unity of the relationship of matter and spirit by the mediation of mind

The expansion of enlightened spiritual insight

The authoritative elemination of error

The co-ordination of known facts and observations

God as personal salvation and destiny

Philosophy, cosmology, theology, and revelation are representative of the quest of the ever-advancing mortals to gain a better understanding and a fuller realization of the comprehensible elements of Deity. The mind reasons between right and wrong with the subsequent acquirement of knowledge. The soul displays wisdom in discerning between truth and error and this leads to self-revelation. The inner spirit of man conveys the enhancement of faith that results in living spiritual experience and facilitated spirit leading.

The religious challenge of this age is to those farseeing and forward-looking men and women of spiritual insight who will dare to construct a new and appealing philosophy of living out of the enlarged and exquisitely integrated modern concepts of cosmic truth, universe beauty, and divine goodness. Such a new and righteous vision of morality will attract all that is good in the mind of man and challenge that which is best in the human soul. Truth, beauty, and goodness are divine realities, and as man ascends the scale of spiritual living, these supreme qualities of the Eternal become increasingly co-ordinated and unified in God, who is love. [2:7.10 (43:3)]

Religious experience leads to the application of a positive and living faith in the goodness of the universe realm. Such a faith-trust leads to the ideal of a religious philosophy where the love of the Paradise Father is fully depended on, where salvation is taken for granted, and where the greatest burning desire is the doing the will of the Father. There develops a new and appealing philosophy of living that "will attract all that is good in the mind of man and challenge that which is best in the human soul." [2:7:10 (43:3)]

Fact and Truth, Belief and Faith

Though reason can always question faith, faith can always supplement both reason and logic. Reason creates the probability which faith can transform into a moral certainty, even a spiritual experience. God is the first truth and the last fact; therefore does all truth take origin in him, while all facts exist relative to him. God is absolute truth. As truth one may know God, but to understand — to explain — God, one must explore the fact of the universe of universes. The vast gulf between the experience of the truth of God and ignorance as to the fact of God can be bridged only by living faith. Reason alone cannot achieve harmony between infinite truth and universal fact. [102:6.6 (1125:11)]

Man reaches inward and Paradiseward for God-consciousness, for the faith-experience of the spiritual values of the Universal Father and the Eternal Son. Man reaches outward and spaceward for an energy understanding of the material cosmos, for the energy facts of the Universal Controller and the Isle of Paradise. The Infinite-I AM, as both Paradise Father and First Source and Center, perfectly correlates these two phases of universe experience in the mind-functioning of the Conjoint Actor, and he unifies them in the emerging Deity of the Supreme Being.

I can choose to accept that my many beliefs are true and reasonable. I can profess with certainty and conviction that my assembled facts are accurate and true. I can associate with other people who share my beliefs. We can find mutual agreement that we have all our facts straight, that they are inclusively coherent, and that they are reliably repeatable in our experience. We can further collectively assert that our reasoned conclusions based on these facts are the basis of truth and are worthy of influencing our beliefs. Nevertheless, we should be cautious about the simplistic equating of fact and truth. Individual facts are isolated, unassociated, and technically cold. They may be factually correct, but that does not mean that they necessarily represent the truth. For example, one could try to convey the facts of the nature and actions of human love, but these assembled facts will never convey the truthful experience of human love. Truth adds a quality of personal meaning and value.

All truth takes origin in God who is "the first truth and the last fact." All facts exist in relativity next to a God who is absolute. Reason and logic can propose the probability of God, but only faith can supplement reason and logic with moral certainty, thereby achieving harmony between the infinite truth of God and the universal fact of God. Scientific materialism utterly fails to recognize the manifold activities of universe phenomena as deriving from the creative acts of a purposive Creator. It persistently reverts phenomena of the higher cosmic realities of mind and spirit back into the baser and more derivative aspects of material reality.

Belief accepts the facts of acquired knowledge - this information is provable. Beliefs can be supported and validated through the scrutiny of trial and error. Faith, on the other hand, must be validated through personal living experience. Faith motivates the individual to focus his highest perception on "the validity of the innate recognition of things, meanings, and values." [103:7.13 (1139.5)] The only proof available to support personal faith is based on the innate recognition of emerging spiritual consciousness. Faith dominates the life experience of the individual resulting in growing religious experience and developing an enhanced hunger for God consciousness.

Belief is always limiting and binding; faith is expanding and releasing. Belief fixates, faith liberates. But living religious faith is more than the association of noble beliefs; it is more than an exalted system of philosophy; it is a living experience concerned with spiritual meanings, divine ideals, and supreme values; it is God-knowing and man-serving. Beliefs may become group possessions, but faith must be personal. Theologic beliefs can be suggested to a group, but faith can rise up only in the heart of the individual religionist. [101:8.2 (1114:6)]